Chapter: 67. Victory or Defeat!
Northern Border.
As dawn broke, the battle between the Demon King’s Army and the Snowman Army finally came to an end.
With the battle over, it was time to clean up the battlefield, but sometimes there’s truly nothing to clean up.
The Snowman Army was made of snow.
Once those living snowmen were chopped up, they returned to snow and fell back to the ground, as if nothing had ever happened.
The snow was still just snow, but the soldiers were utterly exhausted.
“Inspect thoroughly! Make sure there are no signs of snowmen reviving, and no slacking off!”
“Ah… this is ridiculous. Weren’t we supposed to be guarding the border city? Why did we end up here in this damn place fighting these damn snowmen?”
“I don’t know. I felt dizzy yesterday… just heard there was some military order…? Who knew the acting legion commander would be taken for treason in the blink of an eye? But I’ve never thought he was a good guy anyway! Enough grumbling, we should think about how to explain this to Your Highness. I heard the princess is coming back to inspect the military situation today.”
“Is that true?!”
The disorganized army sprawled out in the snow heard Ailer’s name and no one dared to slack off, quickly rising to pretend they had something to do.
In the Third Legion, you might not have heard of the Princess’s fame.
But you definitely had to know that she could twist the head off an Arctic Magic Bear with her bare hands.
Naturally, she could twist off their heads too.
The muddled soldiers were busy checking and cleaning the battlefield.
On top of the ice mountain.
A silver-haired girl was using a stone as a bed, snow as a blanket, hugging a big fish, and comfortably taking a nap.
Fortunately, there was no one on this mountaintop, or else they might think she had peacefully returned to the earth upon seeing her strange sleeping posture.
The stone bed was quite comfy, just a little cold, but that wasn’t a big issue.
Moreover, there was also the big fish.
Uh… it seemed frozen into an ice block.
Xue Fei stretched lazily, stored the ice fish, blinked her still-sleepy eyes, and welcomed the two returning heroes.
Having chopped snowmen all night and bringing back two goofy snowmen using floating magic were Xiya and Belis, both of whom were covered in snow but seemed on edge due to some competition.
Seeing the two big snowmen, Xue Fei could no longer tell whether they were snowmen or if the snowmen were snowmen!
“Wow! You really caught snowmen, huh? Ugh, they look so dull, couldn’t you pick one with more presence? It’s a pity these guys can’t move anymore, it seems they have turned back into ordinary snow?”
“Xue Fei… don’t be greedy, okay? These two are rare finds.”
“I’m just joking! What presence do snowmen have? Snow is enough!”
“It can’t be helped. Aimeres’s magic seemed to have worn off as dawn approached, causing most of the snowmen to just fall apart. Only these two are still intact.”
In this temporary operation to eliminate snowmen, Xiya and Belis were undeniably the main forces.
Though there were plenty of Five Wings Demon Race members in the second and third legions, Xiya and Belis’s strength still surpassed them.
Of course, strength was secondary.
The motivation driving the two of them to wipe out the snowmen was still the agreement they made with Xue Fei.
Belis casually dropped the snowman supported by floating magic, and her eager anticipation led her to lose control of her strength, causing the already powerless snowman to crash to the ground, shattering into a pile of snow.
Xue Fei only saw the mischievous smile on Belis’s face as she leaned in close, whispering into her ear the words purportedly from the all-night battle, a desire for a “different” kind of battle.
“Queen Sister… we agreed on this, right? You said whoever kills more snowmen, gets to enter your room tonight… I’ve been keeping count, and I won~”
Her warm breath contrasted starkly with the icy surroundings, and the sound of her breath tickled Xue Fei’s ear.
Combined with the content of her words, Xue Fei’s hair stood on end like an agitated white cat!
“No, did I ever say something like that?!”
“You did! Don’t tell me you’re going back on your word?” Belis placed her finger on her lips, then gently put it in front of Xue Fei’s little mouth, smiling, “Didn’t you say, whoever brings back the snowman gets a reward? I’ve been looking forward to it.”
“Why don’t you listen to what you actually said?”
When I mentioned bringing back snowmen, you thought it meant chopping down more snowmen.
When I spoke of rewards, I meant preparing you a big fish from the Arctic.
Yet you unilaterally decided the reward was pitiful me.
It was clearly my words, but you had the final say, right?
In fact, “more snowmen killed” was a spur-of-the-moment idea that Xiya and Belis decided on the battlefield.
They usually couldn’t stand each other, and with this competitive opportunity against the defenseless snowmen, they certainly were seeing red.
If you were to ask any soldier from the Third Legion right now, they would probably say they saw a killing god last night.
Two of them, in fact.
Xiya didn’t hear what Belis whispered in Xue Fei’s ear, but seeing Belis biting Xue Fei’s ear made her very unhappy!
With her silver hair in a transformed state, Xiya lacked the same imposing demeanor that her chest usually provided when she puffed up her cheeks in displeasure, but she still exuded presence.
Her tone and blood pressure rose with a certain anger.
“Belis, please don’t cling to Xue Fei too much, she’s getting hot!”
“Ah?”
Belis and Xue Fei looked around in the icy landscape, unsure of what being hot meant.
Realizing her reasoning was somewhat flimsy, Xiya cleared her throat and moved to Xue Fei’s other side to take a more advantageous position.
“Ahem… what I meant to say is, my bet with Belis should be counted as my narrow victory…?”
“Huh?!” Belis shot an incredulous look over Xue Fei’s small head, not blocking her view, as she challenged Xiya’s victory declaration, “I kept count! It was clearly me who killed more snowmen, right? That entire area in the east was all me!”
“No way? I… I said narrow victory just as a subtle expression! Because all the snowmen in that eastern area… hey? Belis, claiming credit like that isn’t cool; you said that was all me taking them down!”
“Arrogance, Queen Sister, now’s a great opportunity! Quickly use your discerning eyes to see the vile true face of this lying woman!”
Alright, fine. I’ll find out your true face, lying woman.
Xue Fei didn’t hesitate to activate her eye of discerning illusion.
—But the first one she looked at wasn’t Xiya, but Belis.
One shouldn’t believe everything this girl said; when she was younger, she claimed she would learn fishing from Xue Fei, and catch big fish to gift to the Queen Sister. In the end, she secretly bought fish from the market, filling a whole tank, brought it to Xue Fei, and claimed she’d caught them to earn a pat on the head, what a despicable person.
Yet Xue Fei accepted all those fish.
And received pats on her head without fail.
But this time…
Very unexpectedly.
Xue Fei first looked at Belis and then at Xiya.
To her surprise, neither of them was lying?
Seeing the two of them squaring off ready to fight, Xue Fei’s hair twitched, and with her left hand clenched into a fist, she clapped it down on her right palm, realizing something.
“Belis.”
“What is it, Queen Sister? Are you finally going to make a fair judgment?”
“No… I remember, you don’t know Holy Magic, nor do you know Fire Element Magic, right…?”
“That’s right?”
“Then how did you kill those snowmen?!”
“By chopping them with a knife! This thing is all about momentum! If the snowmen revive, we just keep chopping! Hmm… but even with all that chopping they will still keep reviving…”
“Then you and Xiya were chopping the same batch of snowmen, right?! What nonsense are you talking about with more kills!”
“Ow…!”
Xue Fei jumped up on the spot and smacked Belis on the head to make the hapless little sister, who only knew how to chop, remember.
Belis raised her hand to touch her stricken forehead… she naturally knew that her chopping of snowmen was meaningless.
But using any means necessary to claim victory was a way of life!
There’s no such way of life!
Xue Fei crossed her arms and angrily glared at Xiya, raising her hand to declare her victory.
She was too short to raise it fully, but she got the gist and raised it symbolically.
“Fine, this snowman chopping operation was won by Xiya!”
In the midst of Belis’s ashen face filled with despair, Xiya’s expression was understandably radiant.
“Really…?! Then that means, Xue Fei, tonight will be…”
“I never agreed to that kind of talk! I only said I’d prepare you a big fish!”
“Oh… I see… that won’t be up to you…” Xiya suddenly murmured something softly.
“What did you say, Xiya? Didn’t catch that?”
“Nothing, I just said I’m looking forward to the big fish tonight.”
“Oh oh…! Don’t worry! I’m an expert fisher in this Arctic!”
